Will Lorsch be a health IT buyer or seller?
MMR Information Systems, which we have previously covered here for its dealings with China and the CEO's blog, has hired the Michael Bass Group to "identify strategic partnerships and acquisition opportunities."
In the press release the emphasis is on buying operations that might complement MMR's Electronic Medical Record, called My Medical Records. (That's why the corporate name can get Google confused with the popular children's vaccine. My Medical Records is MMR.)
The more serious question is whether Lorsch is setting up to buy or sell.
Smart investors know not to fall in love with their investments. Lorsch's background (he became a billionaire in telephone calling cards during the 1990s) shows him to be a smart investor.
Health IT is at an inflection point, awaiting the delivery of billions of dollars in sweet, sweet stimulus cash plus continuing revenue streams from a grateful market.
At this point, with the future seemingly assured, prices for health IT assets should be near their maximums. You can still do deals (as we saw this week with Allscripts) but expect most to be for stock.
The real winner in the Allscripts-Eclipsys deal may well prove to be Misys, the British company that will get $1 billion in cash and keep a small stake in the combined company.
MMR could easily wind up as a short-term buyer and a long-term seller. By picking up some assets to round out his line, Lorsch could have a very valuable asset, with a connection to China, a niche aimed straight at the stimulus billions, and some paying customers.
Run that through Wall Street, as market conditions improve, and he could easily make another billion.